Bubble Wrap

chapter twenty

WHEN WE GET to their apartment, Maggie instantly curls up on the couch. She doesn't bother trying to take her shoes off or untangling from her bag. She just falls apart as she lays on the couch and stares at the wall. This isn't my best friend, Maggie. This is a different version of her.

A version I've never met because Maggie's a glass half-full kind of person. She finds the good in everything, even when everything is falling apart, but this isn't that Maggie. This is the glass completely empty Maggie. The Maggie that can't find the good in this, and I can't blame her. I wouldn't even know where to start looking, but I've always been the down one in our friendship. I don't know how to find the bright side.

Or I didn't.

Now it seems like we've swapped roles, and I would give anything to go back to before she found out. She doesn't deserve to have her heartbroken this way.

"Here, Mags," I say as I set my bag down next to the couch and hold my hands out. "Give me your foot," I tell her, but she doesn't hold her foot up the way I expect her to. Instead, I reach down and grasp her ankle as I pull on the zipper until I'm able to pull her boot off. I set it on the floor next to mine before reaching for the other foot. "I'm going to call Zane."

"No," she says, sitting up. "Don't."

"He should know."

"I'll tell him," she says as she pulls her knees to her chest. "It's just not something I can tell him over the phone. I... it's something that needs to be told in person."

"I won't tell him then. I'll just tell him that something happened and he needs to come home." I offer instead, hoping she'll let me call him. He is the only other person that will understand the pain she's in, and even his won't be the same but it's his loss too and that's the closest someone can get.

"No," she says. "That will just worry him, and if he can't get home it'll make it worse. Just... let him have one more day before I have to change everything for him."

"Maggie." I frown.

"Please," she begs.

With a sigh, I nod my head. "Okay," I tell her as I hold my hand out. "Let's get comfy then, shall we?"

She doesn't smile at me the way I hope she would, instead she just takes my hand and lets me pull her up to her feet. There's a sway in her step as we walk towards their bedroom. The mute colors of their room Zane's doing while the splashes of colors have Maggie written all over them. Or at least, until yesterday they did. Today it feels like we're standing in the room of a stranger.

"Thank you for bring me home," Maggie says as she settles on the edge of the mattress.

"You don't have to thank me," I tell her and move towards the dresser. I open the top drawer, pulling out a pair of pajama shorts and the matching top. "Here," I say, extending them out to her. "How about you change into these and we're curl up and have a movie marathon?"

"You don't have to stay with me, Emery."

"I'm not going anywhere," I tell her as I get myself a pair of shorts and grab one of Zane's old band shirts to change into. I step towards her, cupping her cheeks between my hands and lean my forehead against hers. "Okay?"

"Okay," she says softly.

My lips curl up into a small smile as we change out of our office clothes, snuggling in under the covers after turning the television sitting on the top of their dresser in front of the bed on. Maggie picks some random drama as she curls up next to me. We're barely twenty minutes in when I hear the soft lull of her snore. It eases some of the stress in my chest knowing that for a little while, she doesn't' have to think about her bad news or telling Zane.